Programmed Farrowing with Prostaglandin and Oxitocin in the Sow

This research was carried out with the objective of studying different doses of clorprostenol and oxitocin to induce programmed farrowing in the sow at the end of pregnancy. For this purpose, 40 Yorkshire multiparous sows with 2-4 previous pregnancies. Divided at random in groups of 10. On day I I I of pregnancy all groups received an injection of 175 mg clorprostenol im. And 20 h later they were injected with 0, 10, 20 and 30 units of oxitocin to groups 1-4, respectively. PG + saline affected 70% of treated sows and the mean time for delivering the first piglet was 24.17 h. With the administration of clorprostenol + 10 units of oxitocin the parturition time increased slightly to 26.2 +/- 0.21 h, but remained statistically similar to the control group (p>0.05). However, when the oxitocin level was increased to 20 units administered 20 h after clorprostenol, 90% of sows initiated labor at an average of 22.1 +/- 0.23 h after clorprostenol. When the dosage of oxitocin was 30 units, 90% of sows initiated the delivering of the piglet in about 22.6 +/- 0.22 h after the administration of clorprostenol. As shown by the data, the administration of 20 and 30 reduced in about 14% the time needed to parturition compared to control treatment (p<0.05). This difference was higher (16%; p<0.05) when compared with the treatment that used 10 units of oxitocin. The presence of MMA was not of significance and 97% of piglets were viable.